FTC Closes Triad Case With Settlement

The Federal Trade Commission said yesterday it settled its charges against Bruce Turiansky, the last defendant in its case against a discount-club marketing company accused of billing consumers without consent.

Turiansky, who was an officer with Triad Discount Buying Services, must post a $100,000 bond before engaging in telemarketing again and a $500,000 bond before using negative-option sales methods. The FTC accused him of having an unspecified role in a scheme that used 100 telemarketers to obtain credit card information from consumers and use it to bill them without their knowledge.

According to the FTC, Triad was an umbrella organization that used several smaller firms to market 30-day free trial memberships in discount clubs as an upsell to consumers. The firms failed to tell consumers their credit card information would be transmitted to Triad, which sometimes billed those who had not accepted the offer, the FTC said.

Along with the bond requirements, Turiansky must pay $10,000 to offer repayment to consumers who lost money to Triad, the FTC said.